Every Long Lost Dream
by Ali-Chan1
Summary: Running is the only thing Brooke has known, when life gets hard or her heart gets broken she runs. Falling in love isn't something she's experienced before, but after running away from that will she ever be able to get that trust and love back? A Bake fic
1. Slip Away

_There it was at the tip of my fingers  
__There it was at the tip of my tongue  
__There you were and I had never been so far  
__There it was, the whole world wrapped inside my arms  
__And I let it all slip away _

**Chapter One: Slip Away**

It had been over two years since Brooke even set foot in Tree Hill; two years since she'd crossed the North Carolina boarder and somehow that part of the trip hadn't been the hardest part. She'd thought that the hardest part would be seeing Lucas again; after she'd run away without so much as a word and very little dialog since then. She'd been dreading this day for months; but Bevin had been her friend longer, even, then Peyton had and she couldn't miss her wedding day.

She couldn't turn down Bevin's plea to be her maid-of-honor, not even when she'd tentatively added that Lucas would be the Best Man. The call had come in late, after a long day of classes on top of the internship she had fought hard to win her place at. It was one of those days that made her forget about all that she'd left behind in the United States, where she'd spoken French the entire day and could almost forget that she didn't belong there. She'd agreed because she had to agree, it was when they were five that she and Bevin made the lifelong pledge that they would be each other's maids-of-honor.

Bevin had put her in charge of designing and making the bridesmaid dresses so there was no need to fly back and forth between Paris and Tree Hill. And she'd made it through a week in Tree Hill, through the bridal shower and the bachelorette party and facing Peyton for the first time in four years. She'd made it through the rehearsal dinner, seeing Lucas had been hard but it hadn't been impossible. She'd made it through it all, made it through everything until this exact moment, when she was pretty sure she'd rather let the floor open up and swallow her then to talk to _him._

"What are you doing here?" Her eyes search his face. She was amazed that in a year she hasn't forgotten any of the features written there. She'd left the pictures of them together at their apartment, the scrapbooks she'd worked on with his daughter. Everything had stayed behind, because she knew that if she kept that little daily reminder of them, of when they were happy she wouldn't be able to stay away. If she kept them in her little apartment, out in the open she'd be constantly reminded of what she'd given up instead of what she'd gotten in return.

He was not surprised to see her and she realized that of course he wasn't. He had to have been sitting at the ceremony and watched her stand up next to Bevin. Hell, he'd probably assumed she'd be here. Which wasn't fair, she hadn't had any warning. It had never even crossed her mind that he would be there. He didn't belong here. He didn't live in Tree Hill anymore. He hardly knew Bevin and Skills. So why was he here? "Peyton brought me."

His words hurt her more then his presence ever could, they nearly knock the wind out of her and she knows it shows on her face. "Oh." She hated her emotions for betraying her so blatantly with him standing less then a foot away.

He paused, and she couldn't help but think he's doing this purposefully, to hurt her. She knew she'd hurt him when she walked away, but he'd let her go because he loved her. She couldn't blame him for still being angry, how could she expect him to forgive her if she had yet to forgive herself? She watched his face, he'd never been very good at masking his emotions, as he waged some sort of internal war. "It's not like that, I was in town. I didn't know that you would be here, I didn't know about the wedding."

"So you were just here visiting Peyton," Brooke wished that the resentment could stay out of her voice. She wished that him visiting Peyton didn't effect her so much, wishes that she could hide exactly what she was thinking from him. "Well, good for you two," she knew though that her words were useless, he had this uncanny ability to read exactly what she meant behind the words that she'd just spoken. It was an ability she'd treasured before and now she resented. They weren't together. Hell they'd never really been together.

"Brooke," he finally brought himself to look her in the eye and it was Brooke's turn to look away. She couldn't bear to look him in the eye as he attempts to let her down easily.

"Jake, really," Brooke places her hand on his chest to stop him. "You don't have to explain, really. I left. You have every right to hate me."

"I don't hate you Brooke," she wasn't sure if he even realized he was playing with the loose curl tucked behind her ear.

Or the effect it had on her.

More then anything she'd love for him to wrap his arms around her and kiss the last year away, "I should have known you and Peyton would end up together. I don't blame you," Brooke grabbed Jake's hand, pulling it away from gently brushing her neck. She couldn't handle him touching her that way, not when she had to use every ounce of energy to walk away from him again. "I couldn't blame you, you and Peyton have always had your someday, and good for you for taking advantage of it now." She took a deep breath, praying that she could walk away without crying, that she wouldn't draw attention to them. She knew that everyone had questions about what had happened in the nearly three years she'd lived with Jake, but on the same side she knew that none of them felt like they had the place to ask – they were the ones who hadn't spoken to her when she left Luke.

She had to walk away, and she had to do it now. Staying away had been hard but she was beginning to think that it was no where as near as hard as him standing right here in front of her. "I'm going to go – mingle." She hated the word mingle, it carried this completely awkward connotation, it said I'm going to go so I don't have to sit here and carry on this conversation anymore but I don't really have a good excuse. "It was really great seeing you Jake," she paused, half leaning in to kiss him but thinking the better of it at the last moment.

She managed to turn on her heel and walk away, concentrating on moving one heeled foot in front of the other for about ten steps. Before he touched her arm, "Brooke..."

She was facing Jake before her brain even registered her body moving, the tears in her eyes were nearly undetectable but she knew that Jake could sense that they were there. "Please, please, you don't have to say anything. Especially not here, I'm fine."

"Dance with me."

Brooke took a deep breath, her gaze locking onto Jake's for the first time, "Why are you doing this Jake?"

"Brooke," Jake grabbed her hand and began to lead her to the dance floor, "you used to trust me not to hurt you."

"I do," Brooke murmured, and she couldn't tell if it was loud enough to even be audible. Once they reached the dance floor Jake's arms immediately wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. With her cheek pressed against his chest, it was all Brooke could do to stop her tears of regret. With a slow deep breath she breathed in the scent that had had such a calming effect on her for two years. There was something in the mix of Jake's cologne, aftershave and soap that had the ability to calm Brooke down in any situation.

She could remember how his scent had clung to her skin as she boarded the plane. He'd insisted on taking her to the airport to say goodbye. She knew he didn't realize that it was making it harder to run away from _them_ with him standing on the other side of security watching her go. They'd both known that it could have easily been forever, even if she hadn't known about the ring then (Nikki had filled her in on that part later) she'd felt it too.

Wrapped in his embrace now though, she knew that dancing with him was a mistake. It was only going to make walking away from him again so much harder. He was over her now though, and that thought mixed with all of the other cracks the damn she has holding back her tears and allows a single tear to slip from the corner of her eye and onto his shirt.

She'd walked away the first time because she was afraid of getting her heartbroken again. She wanted to protect herself from that pain. Now she knew the mistake in that. It had been her who'd broken her heart that time. And now, now she would have to walk away again because he didn't have the same feelings for her anymore and it would shatter the tiny pieces of her heart that she'd managed to stick back together in the last year. And she was the only one to blame.

_There it was the whole world wrapped in my arms  
__And I let it all slip away  
__--Rascal Flatts "Words I Couldn't Say"_

**_Authors note: And I'm back. With a brand spanking new story. I got mad that Cathy wouldn't write the one she had planned out months ago so I took it upon myself to make up my own Bake. The story is inspired by a couple country songs that I adore - but the one that's featured in the next chapter is the one that started it all. I know you all have a lot of questions that's the point :p . Thanks go out to tons of people for this chapter, as always to Christina who beta'd it for me despite being a pain in the ass. And Maggie who listened to the plot and read the first chapter despite the fact that she doesn't like Bake. And Ella and Jess who both have encouraged every single step of this. But ultimately this is dedicated to Cathy because without her, and without _Timeless_ there would be none of my obsession with Bake. As for those waiting for _He Said Forever _to update, well it's coming started the chapter while Christina was betaing! Now go, review!!_**


	2. Too Far Gone to Come Back

Chapter Two: Too Far Gone To Come Back

Only ten miles to go  
Before I cross the state line  
I can feel my hands shakin'  
Cause I usually turn the wheel around about this time

"**_I wanna be with you, not Peyton."_**

The rain that beats down on Brooke's windshield makes it nearly impossible to navigate the nearly empty interstate that she'd been driving on for countless hours. She'd lost track of the various cities hours ago between having to strain to see and trying to stop reliving every conversation she'd ever had with him. Like how she can't help, but note the irony that it had been raining when he'd said the very words that are echoing in her head now. Or how many times he'd been forced to say them or a variation of them, just so that he could lay her fear of losing him to Peyton to rest. She'd always held onto the illusion that they were meant to be together.

"**_People who are meant to be together always find their way in the end."_**

It had been three years since she'd said those words to him only a few short days before having her heart crushed by him for the first time. She'd been so young, so in love for the first time, that she'd believed them. But she hadn't lost that naivety even after he'd cheated on her with her best friend. She'd still clung to the belief that you could find the person you were meant to spend the rest of your life with in high school. She still believed the words, still believed that there was one person out there for everyone and that their paths would cross over and over again until they got it right. She'd clung to the hope that that person would be him, that she wasn't stupid for putting her heart out there on the line time after time. But it had been increasingly apparent that he wasn't supposed to be that person for her. That they'd both wanted it, that they had both fought too hard for something that ultimately wasn't meant to be.

"**_You were supposed to fight for me. You were supposed to tell me that you wanted to be with me more then anyone else in the world."_**

Three years. They'd been fighting for and with each other for three years. She'd wanted him from the moment she'd seen him. He was supposed to be different then the other guys, kinder, gentler. He was supposed to be her knight in shining armor or something. She'd cast him into a role that he didn't fit into and damn if she wasn't tired of playing the damsel in distress. They'd broken up and they'd gotten back together so many times it was almost a joke. Hell it probably would have been funny if they hadn't shattered each other's hearts in the process. She'd shed so many tears over him in three years that it was almost a natural reaction. Fight, cry, get back together, cry. It was the natural order of things. And that had to be why this felt so unnatural to be navigating the roads during the mid-May storm somewhere between Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Florida feeling completely and utterly numb. There are no tears, there's not even a fight to keep the tears at bay.

"**_I know before, we said we were done. But we're not done, I can't be done. I can't get you out of my head. Peyton and I, it just was never right. I want to be with you."_**

She could remember the words. The _last_ time they had gotten back together. She could remember the way he stood in front of her. She'd stood with her back pressed firmly against the wall of his bedroom just days before graduation. He'd stood so close to her that she could hardly breathe, much less think clearly. She'd gone to his house to tell him that she'd been accepted to a school in Paris. Istituto Marangoni accepted 2,000 students from around the world into their fashion and design program in Paris and she'd been accepted. But there, with him professing his love for her and how they would go away to college in a few short months and they'd get a new start, she couldn't deny him. Couldn't deny _them_ a chance they had never had before. One where Peyton wouldn't factor in, where they would only know each other, they could build a new life together. Peyton was sticking around Tree Hill; she'd missed too much school. Haley and Nathan were going to Duke so they'd be close. But in Chapel Hill it would just be them. It would be a fresh start.

_"I can't keep having this same damn fight with you Luke!" Not only was Brooke sure she couldn't keep fighting with Luke like this, she was pretty sure that her suite mates were tired of them having this fight. After six months who could blame any of them for being tired of hearing the same words?_

"_Brooke..." _

She doesn't look at him. Instead she looks everywhere, but at him. Her eyes were trained on the linoleum floor, the wood paneling that looked like it had come straight off of the set of **That 70's Show**. Eventually her gaze travels to her bed, decorated with the beautiful red comforter she'd bought in her vast attempt to make the room a little nicer and a little less smothering. Her gaze can't help, but stop on her roommate's bed though. Her roommate hated her. Hell she was pretty sure her suite mates hated her too. She'd spent the first two months so wrapped up in being back together with Lucas that she'd missed that important bonding time and the three of them had eventually just stopped asking her to go out with them. It hadn't bothered her then, she had Lucas and they met up with Nathan and Haley all the time. Then the fighting had started. The fighting between her and Lucas locked in her bedroom, screaming at the top of their lungs. It was then that she had realized all the mistakes she had made when she came to UNC like not bonding with her roommates. Because Haley was too tired from many nights filled with a screaming baby and all bridges with Peyton were long past burned.

"_Brooke," he says her name again and this time he crossed the space between them, gently cupping her face. "I know you've been really stressed about finals, but they're done. Freshman year is officially over. Why don't we just drop this? We're going to meet Jared, Laura and everyone at Spanky's. We can walk to Franklin Street, we can talk. Okay?" Jared. Laura. Everyone. His friends. Aspiring writers who would rather sit around talking about literature and debating politics then do anything remotely fun._

"_No, Luke. It's not okay. We can't just drop it. We've been dropping it for months now. Here's the thing Luke, we made a mistake. Back in June, we made a mistake. I should have gone to Paris and..."_

"_Don't you dare blame that on me." Lucas drops his hand so that that they hang limply at his side. Now it's his turn to avoid her gaze. The words should have anger behind them, but it's obvious that he's feeling as emotionally drained from this fight as Brooke is._

"_I'm not blaming it on you, I'm blaming it on me." Brooke's eyes finally settle on Lucas face, she's memorized every feature there. From the way his lips curved slightly up, even when he was serious and how his eyes were a dead give away to every emotion he was currently experiencing. "I shouldn't have come with you. I so desperately wanted to be in love with you that I actually thought I was." Brooke silently adds that she didn't let herself consider what she had let herself give up for one last chance with him - a spot at her dream school, maybe even a chance at being something amazing in the fashion design world. She can't tell him this because she doesn't blame him; she blames herself for being the one to give up all of that. This was her fault not his._

"_Jesus, Brooke. I'm not having this fight with you again. I'm going to go and let you cool down. We'll talk tomorrow." That's the way it would go, he would deem the conversation over. Walk away. Then call her an hour, sometimes as much as a day later and apologize. And she would forgive him. She'd forgive him because not forgiving him and breaking it all off would mean she really had given up all of her dreams for nothing. But with a startling revelation when he walked out the door she realized that she couldn't spend the rest of her life trying to prove herself wrong._

She didn't cry as she packed all of her clothes into a couple of boxes and settled them in her car. She didn't cry as she packed an entire year's worth of school stuff, classes that she loved, into another box nestled between her clothes. She thought she would cry when she packed the things he had inadvertently left into a small box and asked her roommate to make sure that he got it when he stopped by to see her next. Her roommate hadn't really said anything aside from promising her that she would, but it was the look in her eyes that told Brooke that maybe, for the first time all year, she had gained her roommate's respect. She'd thought she would cry as she drove off or at least have some sort of numbness press down on her chest to make it hard to breathe. But the feeling never set in and hour later nothing else had changed.

God help her, she actually felt free. From Lucas. Even now as she pressed on through the rain, she felt free. He'd left countless messages. The first couple were apologetic. He was sorry they were fighting again and if she would answer her phone they could meet to talk about their problems. Then once he obviously figured out that she was gone they'd become pleading. But the pleas to come back quickly gave way to accusations. She'd been tempted to answer the phone when he was begging her to come home, but when she was accused of running away she knew she couldn't call him.

How could she make him understand that for the first time in her life she wasn't running away from anything? She was running toward something. She could just feel it—something was about to change. She didn't know what and she didn't know where she was going. All she knew was that she was going toward something and she'd know where she was supposed to be when she got there. Maybe that was crazy, who knows. Maybe Brooke Davis really had lost her marbles. Maybe time would come to show that, but right now Brooke felt calm, like she was finally making the right decision and she had to run with that for now.

This whole running to something would be made much easier if Brooke could actually see where she was going. For the last two hours she'd hardly been able to see two car lengths in front of her, but steadily the rain had come down harder and she had very few options beyond taking the next towns exit to find a place to stay the night. The exit thankfully, came more quickly then Brooke had expected and within minutes she had pulled off of the interstate and into a town that is obviously brightly lit even through all the rain, but that wouldn't make the search to find a place to stay for the night any easier.

While she sat at a red light Brooke took a couple deep breaths, she had to take everything in small steps. Right now she had to figure out where she was going to stay and later when she was safely inside her hotel room she would figure out the next step. She didn't have to come up with a permanent plan, but she needed to figure out where she would stay even if it was just for a couple of days. She had so few options, she had a very small circle of friends and her parents had all, but disowned her when she'd told them she would be going to UNC and not the fashion school in Paris so California was out. She couldn't show up on their doorstep to prove them right.

She had to turn the air in the car up as it was suddenly stifling and Brooke could attribute that to nothing, but the panic finally settling in. What had she been thinking? Where was she supposed to go? Her parents had taken away all, but one emergency credit card, they weren't paying for school and they weren't giving her a cent. She had very little money, enough for a couple days in a cheap motel, but then what? The light overhead changed and Brooke hit the gas so quickly that the car lurched forward, sliding slightly on the water slick roads. The adrenaline that courses through her veins at the near loss of control brings her attention back to the road slowly she would think about what came next, she would figure it out. She was Brooke-fricken-Davis; it would all be all right.

It was at that moment, just as she'd gotten herself calmed down enough to focus on the road that the brake lights of the car in front of her were slammed on. Brooke immediately slammed on her brakes, but between the timing and the weather there was no stopping her sliding into the car in front of her. There was no stopping the sickening crunch of metal or the excruciating pain before the blackness set it.

_If I'm not over you by Georgia  
__Then I'll Be Alabama bound  
__There was a time where I'd do aything for you  
__But this time baby, I won't turn around  
Carolyn Dawn Johnson "Georgia"_

**_A.N. Whew, and chapter two is done. It was kind of like pulling teeth, this chapter. Oy. Anyway, it's done! Yay! As usual thanks go out to the best betas in the entire world, Christina and Miranda who just, so rock. Ella actually didn't hold my hand for this chapter, in fact she didn't read it until right before it was sent to be beta'd but she still rocks, and we spent the last couple of weeks talking about Green people and snow anyway. And then there's Jess, who finally listened long enough to hear the entire plot and loved it, lol. Oy too much thinking going on here. Thanks so much to the people who reviewed I love the feedback! Oh and too Cathy, who this entire thing is dedicated to because without her I would have no love of Bake (and who needs to call me because I need her nursing/broken advice, lol) And finally to Maggie who decided she liked this fic even if it is a Bake._**


	3. Like Fallin' When You're Trying to Fly

**Chapter Three: Like Fallin' When You're Trying to Fly**

_I guess it's gonna have to hurt  
__I guess I'm gonna have to cry  
__And let go of things I've loved  
__To get to the other side_

The first thing Brooke noticed when she came to was that there was a crushing sensation resting on her chest. The other was that the room was entirely dark and making focusing on anything incredibly difficult. She wasn't sure how long she had been out, but judging by the darkness blanketed around her, she'd have to guess that it had been awhile. In no time though her senses also pick up on something new, someone was shuffling around the room and Brooke's best guess is that had been what pulled her out of her sleep.

"Jake?" She whispered careful not to wake the sleeping child on her chest, "is that you?" When there was no response though, she continued to whisper, "please make that be you Jake because if you're a stealthy burglar...well I've already had a hell of a week and can't handle anymore drama. Jake?"

There's a crash followed closely by a, "Jesus Christ Brooke!" And Brooke could only guess that she'd startled Jake when her whispers had gotten louder. And in no time Brooke had to blink against the bright overhead living room light. "What are you guys doing out here?"

"What time is it?"

"Nine-thirty. Again, what are you guys doing out here? You know that Jenny does have her own bed, right? And I graciously let you sleep in my bed seeing as how you're injured?" Jake teased with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Well I'll have you know, I fed and watered your daughter, and we laid down to watch some princess movie and we fell asleep."

"You fed and watered my daughter? What is she a horse?"

"At the moment she feels like it. Will you please come get her off of me! By the way I think she can eat her weight in macaroni and cheese. She's a little thing but girl can eat."

"Is that what you guys had for dinner?" Jake turns to glance over his shoulder at the disaster that was his previously clean kitchen.

"Yeah but not that organic crap you have the cabinets. If you're going to stoop and feed your kid kid food then you need to make it the real stuff. If you want to feed her healthy stuff, then don't buy macaroni and cheese. So we walked to the grocery store and bought the fake kraft stuff...now kid removal please?" Brooke struggled to sit up once Jake had removed the sleeping child from her.

"I'll be right back," Jenny immediately snuggled into her father's arms when he lifted her off of Brooke and headed toward Jenny's back bedroom.

Brooke struggled to her feet once Jake had disappeared, the accident had been a week ago but she was still sore, especially if she'd been sitting still for too long. She'd woken in the hospital confused as to where she was and what had exactly happened but a nurse had come by at that time and explained it all. She suffered from some minor head trauma and had a broken arm but all in all she'd been lucky, it could have been much worse. Then the nurse had announced that she had a visitor and that's when Brooke's heart had sunk. She'd made it through the revelation that she had a broken arm and had injured her poor car but had gotten upset with just the thought that Luke had found her. Yeah, that was definitely the basis for an unhealthy relationship.

But it hadn't been Lucas at all. Jake Jagielski had walked through the door and Brooke couldn't have been more shocked if the Dali Lama had walked through the door handing out dirty magazines. In an interesting twist of what? Fate? Irony? Brooke wasn't sure but whatever it was that was interestingly twisted it had been Niki, Jake's Niki, who'd slammed on her brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of her. It had been Niki that had dialed 911 and then eventually Jake. And that, well that had changed everything. Brooke didn't even get the chance to worry about what she was going to do without a car in a city where she knew no one. Jake immediately offered her his pull out couch for as long as she needed it and a week later they were settling into routine.

"You need to figure out what you are doing with this thing," even this speech was becoming routine. Every night when Lucas called around nine o'clock Jake would come out wielding Brooke's cell phone and the lecture would start. "He keeps calling, you have to pick up this phone and tell him you are okay. Because I really can't take this song playing over and over again for the next...five weeks or however long you decide to stay."

"Fine," Brooke took several determined steps toward Jake but her nerve faltered halfway towards him. She had successfully avoided all of Luke's calls since she left Chapel Hill and she'd thought of a million things to say to him, to explain to him...and yet her mind was blank. "I...I can't...you do it."

"Brooke." In just the week that Brooke had spent with Jake, his week with Jenny, Brooke had learned that tone. It was the daddy tone that said that he wasn't about to clean up Jenny's (or in this case Brooke's) mess.

"Fine," Brooke took a deep breath and grabbed the phone out of Jake's hand. With a shaking hand she flipped open the phone, honestly she was afraid that if she heard Luke's voice on the other end she would give in and ask him to pick her up at the airport. He was her addiction. Bad for her both physically and emotionally and yet cold turkey was the only way to let go of him. In a swift movement Brooke flipped the phone open and in one long breath stated, "I'm in Savannah with Jake. Stop calling." And with that she flipped the phone shut again, he'd heard her voice. He knew where she was. That was all she owed him. But that thought felt wrong, they'd been such huge parts of each other and all she owed him was seven words? Well hell, seven was the number of completion right?

Clearly not as the phone almost instantly began ringing again. Why was he making this so god damn hard? With a frustrated yelp Brooke wrenched the phone open again and then pushed it harder backwards and with little effort the thin, expensive, high tech phone snaps in half hanging on by only their wires.

"Brooke..." Jake's voice was concerned but sympathy was not an emotion that Brooke was prepared to deal with because if he was sympathetic she'll cry. And if she cried, it really means it was over between her and Luke and that everything that week had really happened. And that everything she knew about her life was over. And that was definitely not something Brooke was ready to deal with.

With a shake of her head Brooke walked out of the apartment and down the stairs and eventually to the side of the road where the trash was waiting to be picked up in the morning. Without a second thought Brooke pulled open the lid and dumped her trash inside. That was supposed to make her feel empowered it was supposed to make her feel better like she was making the right decision. All it did was break the damn that was holding back the tears she'd been holding in for a week – hell maybe longer.

She had to have looked ridiculous as she slumped to the curb next to the trash can. With her knees pulled to her chest and her face buried she had to have looked so many degrees of pathetic but those thoughts didn't run through her head. Instead she wished that she didn't love Lucas. The realization that you're in an unhealthy relationship doesn't mean that you immediately stop loving that person any less. If that was the case this would be easy, she would have stopped loving Lucas a long time ago. They would have stopped intentionally hurting each other so long ago. Lucas Scott would always be her first love and there was no getting around that.

"Hey," Jakes voice caused Brooke to stiffen, they had never really talked about why Brooke had left Chapel Hill. He knew that Brooke hadn't come looking for him or anything. He knew that Brooke and Luke were over and Brooke had been quick to assure him that it wasn't Peyton related. But as for the reasoning behind the end of Brucas? All Brooke had returned with was that they were fed up.

"Jake I'm fine," and in an instant Brooke was transformed to fine. Because that's who she was, the queen of the mask. She could play a smile when she wanted to cover up anything, there was no hint of tears in her voice and the darkness easily masked the tears on her face. "Just tired, you're daughter is exhausting."

"Thanks for watching her for me, there was an emergency at work and..." Jake trailed off when he dropped down beside Brooke. Awkwardly he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, the action itself wasn't awkward it was just that, well, they'd known each other through most of high school but they'd never really been friends. But Brooke couldn't say that the embrace wasn't welcomed and she leaned into it, her head resting on his chest. "It's going to get better Brooke."

Brooke sighed, she knew that it had to her world didn't revolve around Lucas Scott. It was just, well, what now? She had no school. No job. Hell, running away had only earned her a broken arm and and a car that would spend the next two weeks in the shop. So running away wasn't the answer. And going back was the last thing Brooke would consider. So what were her options then?

"You can stay here for as long as you need to, that pull out hasn't been used since I bought it. When I was at work I looked around...There's a couple help wanted signs around town. It's a good temporary thing, at least until you figure out what you want to do or where you want to go. You don't have to have all of the answers right now."

Brooke sat up straighter and moved away from Jake. He was right she didn't need to have her entire life plotted out right now she just needed to figure out tomorrow and tomorrow she'd figure out the day after.

_I know there's a blue horizon  
__Somewhere up ahead, just waiting for me  
__Getting there means leaving things behind  
__Sometimes life's so bittersweet_

_**A.N. Yeah I know it's been awhile. And yes I know that I suck for it being so long. And I don't really have an excuse but I will just tell you that you should count yourselves lucky that I opted to finish. Okay that sounded concieted. Anyway. I hope you enjoyed! Review please, it makes me feel more inclined to update!**_


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